KIDS' FASHION

Runway To Playroom

Top designers are turning out kids' clothes that mimic their adult collections down to the last pleat.

When Samantha Meiler shops for her son, she has a very specific look in mind: designer jeans, velour track suits, L.A.M.B. sneakers, a sporty-urban vibe.

"My son's style is very Kingston," she says, referring to Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale's boy. "I make no qualms about it. I see pictures of Kingston and I say, 'I want that outfit for my son.' "

Of course, lil' Rossdale is still a toddler, and Meiler's son is just 21 months old. But they're part of a growing set of pint-sized fashion plates, wearing shrunken-down versions of trendy adult clothes.

In the last few years, the obsession with dressing little kids like Dogtown skaters, Malibu moms and even Upper East Side socialites has hit a new, Suri-high level.

More clothing companies than ever are producing what the rag trade refers to as mini-me clothes on every price level. Marquee American designers, such as Phillip Lim and Marc Jacobs, are turning out Lilliputian renditions of clothes that sail down the runway each season.

European design houses that have a long tradition of producing children's clothes are paying more attention to their kids wear lines. Instead of just churning out jumpers in Burberry checks or Missoni waves, they're making children's clothes that look like grown-up togs in teeny-tiny sizes. So naturally, the fast-fashion folk have followed suit: H&M and Zara are turning out mini-me looks for kids of all sizes.

Lim's new collection for girls, Kid by Phillip Lim, mirrors his ready-to-wear line almost down to the pleat. "It's the first time a line has been so literally inspired by the adult collection," says Tracy Edwards, a vice president at Barneys New York, which carries the collection. "It's fresh and so current to what was happening in adult fashion."

For fall, Lim is offering structural pea coats, tunic dresses with massive bows, pleated and cuffed shorts and belted sweaters, for $55 to $325. "With this generation of new-age baby boomers, even though they have a kid now, they still have a specific aesthetic," Lim says, "and it relates to their whole life -- the type of car they drive, the shoes they wear. I was thinking that when they dress their child, they want something tasteful, something fun and interesting."

In L.A. there are still a few popular stores stocking traditional, expensive children's lines like Oilily and Pampolino, but most have transformed into emporiums for freakishly small adult apparel.

And while women's national apparel sales have followed the economy downward, kids' clothing sales have dipped less profoundly, according to retail research company NDP Group. And sales for infant-toddler clothes are the only clothing sector that's significantly up, from $14.7 million in March and April 2007 to $15.3 million in the same period this year.

At Pumpkinheads in Brentwood, which stocks diminutive True Religion and J Brand jeans and Splendid tees, sales are up 12% so far this year. "I think the luxury market is almost unaffected by the economy," owner Jamara Ghalayini says. "Also with the gas prices and the economy, it seems like people are traveling less, so have more money to spend on their kids."

Lisa Kline, who owns four boutiques and one kids' store, said sales at her kids' store are outpacing the others. (Everything she buys, including Chip & Pepper jeans and C&C California tees, is a shrunken-down version of looks you might see wandering up and down Robertson Boulevard -- sans the triple-shot Starbucks latte). Kline added that her sales staff uses celebrity kids mania as a selling tool, pointing out which Kingsley shirt Maddox Jolie-Pitt was recently seen in, etc. "People care about that stuff," she says.

Clearly. In focus groups conducted by celebrity tabloid Life & Style Weekly, Meiler said, readers are always riveted by celebrity offspring and what they're wearing. "Kingston is the most popular boy," she said. "These kids are setting trends without even knowing it. Madonna's daughter Lourdes is a total fashion diva, and Maddox is like the forefather of celebrity kids' fashion."

People magazine even bought a celebrity babies blog recently that chronicles the scintillating lives and looks of Bluebell Halliwell (Geri Halliwell's 2-year-old daughter) and Honor Marie Warren (the daughter of Jessica Alba and Cash Warren is only 2 weeks old, but already a tabloid sensation), among others.

The media coverage has "just created a bigger push and demand for shrunken-down adult clothing," said Serge Azria, designer for contemporary women's line Joie, which recently debuted kids' and tween collections that sell at Barneys New York and Lisa Kline Kids.

"Kids are getting more informed these days about what labels that their favorite celebrities wear, and want to emulate their favorite role model," Azria says.